A Sister’s All You Need Episode 12 (Final) Review: A Sister’s All You Need?

A very easy going and light final episode for A Sister’s All You Need. We got to see more backstory and more struggles that relate to being a writer.

Japanese Original Episode Title: 妹さえいればいい？

Plot

We are presented finally with what really happened to Itsuki when he was younger and what really made him want to become a light novel writer. His mother passed away when he was young, his father was working and didn’t have time to take care of him so they hired a housekeeper. Despite all that, Itsuki was never really social at school and was a loner kind-of-guy. The daughter of the housekeeper, who had her mom talking to her about Itsuki all the time, decided to go and meet him and that’s when they started to hang out. One thing led to another and Itsuki fell for her but he was rejected as he was seen only as a younger brother. Reality hit him hard and somehow he was inspired to ‘become the protagonist’ of his life and start writing novels. The rest of the episode is basically the whole gang playing a board game about the life of a novel writer where they see that life can be really tough when choosing that profession even if it’s just in a game.

Episode Highlights

Itsuki’s ‘ex’: For me, it felt kind of unavoidable that he fell for her. I mean what did she really expect? She was dressing up, cosplaying and reading the same light novels with an antisocial and introverted young boy. It’s kind of logical that this happened.

The bookshelf:I don’t know why but I laughed when he was thinking what novel to choose for her where it was pretty damn obvious that he would choose the only one that was not one with the whole background.

He tried:Itsuki said he wanted to become the protagonist, and yes he tried a lot when he was at school. He went to sit on the last seat next to the window. He has been reading indeed a lot of novels.

Themes & Trivia

When Itsuki’s ‘ex’ was cosplaying for him, she dressed up as Haruhi Suzumiya, from the The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya,a really famous character that is definitely not a younger sister for him, because, first, he is way too young, and second, I am not going to spoil anything but for those who have seen the anime we know that Haruhi is well, definitely older than Itsuki for a variety of reasons! Hehe.

Did you notice that the opening was different in this episode? There was only Nayu-chan waiting for Itsuki this time and also the red-headed girl aka Itsuki’s ‘ex’ has been on the opening since the beginning and we finally got to see who the hell she was. Win.

Comments

The ‘Life of a Novel Writer’ should be renamed to ‘The Troubled Life of a Novel Writer’. Once again, I think the author of the show wanted to point out how hard it is to be a novel writer and all the hardships that they deal with in the industry, editors as well. It really makes you value people’s work more because by the end of the day, it really isn’t easy to make a good story, a good anime, and a good life. In order to achieve success, you need to risk a lot and expect that things will turn out well. I always used to admire writers and people that work in that industry but after watching this anime, they have my absolute respect.

It was nice to see each character focusing on their own life. Miyako will try to become an editor, Haruto will try harder in general, Itsuki will keep having his young sister fetish, and Nayu, well, will always keep being Nayu I guess. And one more thing: Am I the only one that thought that Itsuki’s room as a kid was almost the same with the ‘prison room’ that the editor threw him in? I mean the only differences were the window and the toilet if you really think about it…

haNYA?!

I loved Nayu’s reaction when Itsuki told her about his ‘ex’. That ‘haNYA?’ was super cute. So that was it for Imouto sae Ireba Ii. I don’t know if there is going to be a Season 2 or if this season was left like this in order for the fans to be motivated to buy the light novels, but in any case it was a fun and enjoyable series to watch, with the necessary perviness and life struggles. Cheers!